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Estimation of mean first passage time for bursty gene expression

Mayank Shreshtha1, Anudeep Surendran1, Anandamohan Ghosh1

  • 1Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata Mohanpur 741246, India.

Physical Biology
|May 21, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Gene expression involves noisy, bursty production of mRNAs and proteins. This study shows that increased burstiness in gene expression processes leads to a shorter mean first passage time (MFPT).

Area of Science:

  • Molecular Biology
  • Biophysics
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • Gene expression is inherently stochastic, characterized by bursting.
  • The mean first passage time (MFPT) is a key metric for analyzing these stochastic processes.
  • Understanding burstiness is crucial for modeling gene expression dynamics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of burstiness on the mean first passage time (MFPT) in gene expression.
  • To derive analytical expressions for MFPT under various burstiness models.
  • To provide a quantitative understanding of how burst dynamics influence gene product accumulation.

Main Methods:

  • Development of analytical models for transcriptional and translational bursts.
  • Mathematical derivation of expressions for MFPT.
  • Numerical simulations to validate analytical findings.

Main Results:

  • An analytical framework was established to quantify MFPT in bursty gene expression.
  • MFPT was found to be monotonically decreasing with increasing burstiness.
  • The study confirmed that higher burst frequencies lead to faster attainment of target molecule numbers.

Conclusions:

  • Burstiness in gene expression significantly accelerates the time to reach critical molecular thresholds.
  • The derived analytical expressions offer a valuable tool for predicting gene expression dynamics.
  • This work enhances the understanding of stochastic gene regulation and its temporal aspects.

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